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PCLEX Dictionaries for XyWrite 4 - Summary

There are many extant versions of the IBM-authored "PCLEX"
DICtionaries (*.DIC). For example, there are 5 different
versions of German -- 6 if you count Swiss German. There
are 10 versions of English (including 2 of "Australian"
English). They derive from distributions of Signature,
Euroscript, IBM Search Manager, Lotus Notes, and (the most
fertile source) Netscape Communicator v4.61 for OS/2 [these
work fine in Windows]. Some have only a Spell Check
function, others integrate a Thesaurus as well. A few don't
*seem* to work at all (I suspect that some of these, e.g.
Russian, Greek, Polish, are Double Byte Character Sets or
DBCS), or they apparently include a Thesaurus but I can't
get it to work; others inform you that there are "no
synonyms in dictionary". Determining the differences among
them requires a closer evaluation than I have undertaken (I
have not pounded on any of the outright failures
exhaustively). My working assumptions are: Thesaurus is
preferable to no Thesaurus, and after that, bigger is
presumed better. Some of the DICs are very big, and I'm
surprised they work with XyWrite at all -- but ... mirabile
dictu.

Endeavoring to sort out which PCLEX dictionaries work, and
which don't, I've compiled a raw list of all versions, and
then a list of "favored" versions. After the date, there
are 2 columns for the source(s):
	E=Euroscript 7
	L=Lotus Notes
	M=Search Manager
	N=Netscape
	S=Signature
And a third column for the presence of a Thesaurus:
	T present
	[blank] NOT present
	? unsure

Availability
------------
The DICtionaries are available in several archival forms:

On some OS/2 Bonus Pak CDs (v4, Software Choice, MCP)
On Lotus Notes v5/v6 CDs in the APPS\DICTIONARIES directory
 (the "LOTUS*.DIC" files of v4 are not the same thing)
On Lotus Domino CDs

There are two or three individual DIC files scattered about
on the Net in one form or another.

There is a complete compilation of Lotus DICs (marked "L" in
the two lists below) here:

ftp://ftp.fh-lueneburg.de/pub/knoell/BWL-IT_SS04/ADBS/Notes_English/Apps/Dictionaries/dictionaries.exe
Edit [2019/02/13]: pclex.exe (=dictionaries.exe)

That's a self-extracting ZIPfile, 33.1Mb -- big.

Interestingly, this particular compilation includes some
dictionaries not otherwise known to me, some that are
identical to the 27 dictionaries that were freely available
on IBM's (now-defunct) Netscape for OS/2 site, and others
that are much larger (e.g. Deutsch, or the US and UK
dictionaries, which are triple the old size). A
disappointment is that a few of them, notably the big
US and UK dictionaries, apparently do not have thesauri.

While testing these various DICs, I learned a few things,
and am baffled by others. Memory (OOM) is an issue. I had
to launch XyWrite without my customary configuration to get
a few of them to work, due to OOM (Out of Memory) -- exactly
_what_ memory I was out of, I'm not sure, but I imagine it
must be XPL memory (required to run the DLG frames that
PCLEX dictionaries interoperate with). More testing would
narrow that question. In 1998, I made a note to
myself that if you intend to switch dictionaries in the same
session, it is best to start out with US.DIC -- it *may* be
best to start with US.DIC period, and probably with the
_original_ 1991 US.DIC. But now, I'm not at all sure that
any of that is necessary. If you start out by setting, say,
FRANCAIS as your default dictionary in DFL
("df UD=FRANCAIS"), it works. If you have a lot of "stuff"
loaded on your KBD keys, it may be best to manually command
"SPELL" on the CMline, and hit an unadorned Enter key, e.g.
Grey-Enter. U2 frame "goThes" is still the best way to
launch the Thesaurus.

I found an error (on the "Ignore" key) in the custom Spell
Check frame in DLG, and I intend to look more closely at that
frame soon (the factory frame stunk and my revision isn't a
whole lot better). I will post an updated version.

You need 4 DLLs in Editor's directory at launchtime in order
to get PCLEX to work. Download them at:
 http://holmgren.home.acedsl.com/pclexdos.zip

You *must* set a few DeFaults before running these dictionaries:
 "OM=0" -- which Masticon? 0=PCLEX, 31=Microlytics
 "LX=d:\path\" -- the location of the DIC files (note trailing "\")
 "ZX=0 or 1" -- 0 if using Expanded memory, 1 if not (I use 5120Kb)
 "UD={name_of_dictionary}" -- e.g. BX d ud=USQ2 or BX d ud=FRANCAISQ2

I'm thinking that I'm going to collect all the "favored"
versions into a single ZIPfile, and put them on a private
server. It will be a big file: 30Mb , so ... broadband.
Anybody who wants them, can ask privately (to be sure that
we keep these "in the family") -- I'm tired of handing these
DICs out one by one, and also of being the only person who
has a repository. Speaking of which: does anybody have
the "supplemental" Legal or Computer PCLEX dictionaries?

Note that you can also get the PCLEX DLL for XyWin at
XyWWWeb.

Maybe someday NB will get its act together and
implement these dictionaries in NBWin. The support for
them, even the frame that displays spellchecking, is already
there, except that its *broken*. They're such idiots, they
don't even know what's in their own word processor. Instead
of fixing these things, they trot off to Bible study
conferences -- meanwhile, the entire populations of Iceland,
South Africa, Brazil, Norway, Turkey, etc etc are just
waiting for them to act. As Buñuel said,
	"Thank God I'm an atheist."

Raw List
--- ----
ARABIC.DIC  672768 4-06-00 L ? Arabic
CATALA.DIC  710144 9-15-99 NL  Catalan
CZECH.DIC  1474560 9-15-99 NL ? Czech (DBCS?)
DANSK.DIC  1279488 9-15-99 N T Danish
NEDERLND.DIC 2728448 9-15-99 NL T Dutch Restrictive
NEDPLUS.DIC 2730496 9-15-99 NL T Dutch Permissive
AFRIKAAN.DIC 1207296 9-15-99 NL T Dutch (Afrikaans)
US.DIC    654848 7-31-91 S T English (American)
USSM2.DIC   664576 5-15-95 M T English (American) (XyWin)
US.DIC    666624 9-15-99 N T English (American)
US.DIC    1595392 12-17-01 L  English (American)
AUS.DIC    668672 9-15-99 N T English (Australian)
AUS.DIC   1629184 12-17-01 L T English (Australian)
UK.DIC    637440 8-13-91 S T English (British)
UKSM2.DIC   647168 5-15-95 M T English (British (XyWin)
UK.DIC    648704 9-15-99 N T English (British)
UK.DIC    1612800 12-17-01 L  English (British)
SUOMI.DIC   343552 9-15-99 NL ? Finnish
FRANCAIS.DIC 1132544 4-02-91 S T French
FRANCAIS.DIC 1166336 9-15-99 NL T French
CANADIEN.DIC 1090560 9-15-99 NL T French (Canadian)
DEUTSCH.DIC 2483712 11-11-91 S T German
DEUTSCH.DIC 2519552 2-20-95 E T German
DEUTSCH.DIC 3156480 4-06-00 L T German
DEUTSCH2.DIC 1657856 9-15-99 N  German National Reform
DEUTSCH2.DIC 2472448 4-06-00 L T German National Reform
DSCHWEIZ.DIC 1865728 9-15-99 NL T German (Swiss)
HELLAS.DIC  2404352 9-15-99 NL ? Greek
HEBREW.DIC  378880 4-06-00 L ? Hebrew
MAGYAR.DIC  2721280 9-15-99 NL ? Hungarian
ISLENSK.DIC  530432 9-15-99 NL  Icelandic
ITALIANO.DIC 262656 ?- ?-91 S  Italian
ITALIANO.DIC 1235968 9-15-99 NL T Italian
EFLJPN.DIC  479232 4-06-00 L ? Japanese
EFLKOR.DIC  609792 4-06-00 L ? Korean
US.MED    223744 5-06-98 L ? Medical American
NORBOK.DIC  1569792 9-15-99 NL T Norwegian (Bokmal)
NORNYN.DIC  1049088 9-15-99 NL  Norwegian (Nynorsk)
POLSKA.DIC  1509376 9-15-99 NL ? Polish (DBCS?)
PORTUGAL.DIC 1319424 9-15-99 NL T Portuguese National
BRAZIL.DIC  1498112 9-15-99 N  Portuguese (Brazilian)
BRAZIL.DIC  1280512 6-01-02 L  Portuguese (Brazilian)
RUSSIAN.DIC 3323904 9-15-99 NL ? Russian (DBCS?)
ESPANA.DIC  280576 11-04-91 S  Spanish
ESPANA.DIC  955392 9-15-99 NL T Spanish
SVENSK.DIC  1243648 9-15-99 NL T Swedish
TURKIYE.DIC  582144 9-15-99 NL ? Turkish

"Favored" Version
--------- -------
ARABIC.DIC  672768 4-06-00 L ? Arabic
CATALA.DIC  710144 9-15-99 NL  Catalan
CZECH.DIC  1474560 9-15-99 NL ? Czech (DBCS?)
DANSK.DIC  1279488 9-15-99 N T Danish
NEDERLND.DIC 2728448 9-15-99 NL T Dutch Restrictive
NEDPLUS.DIC 2730496 9-15-99 NL T Dutch Permissive
AFRIKAAN.DIC 1207296 9-15-99 NL T Dutch (Afrikaans)
US.DIC    666624 9-15-99 N T English (American)
AUS.DIC   1629184 12-17-01 L T English (Australian)
UK.DIC    648704 9-15-99 N T English (British)
SUOMI.DIC   343552 9-15-99 NL ? Finnish
FRANCAIS.DIC 1166336 9-15-99 NL T French
CANADIEN.DIC 1090560 9-15-99 NL T French (Canadian)
DEUTSCH.DIC 3156480 4-06-00 L T German
DEUTSCH2.DIC 2472448 4-06-00 L T German National Reform
DSCHWEIZ.DIC 1865728 9-15-99 NL T German (Swiss)
HELLAS.DIC  2404352 9-15-99 NL ? Greek
HEBREW.DIC  378880 4-06-00 L ? Hebrew
MAGYAR.DIC  2721280 9-15-99 NL ? Hungarian
ISLENSK.DIC  530432 9-15-99 NL  Icelandic
ITALIANO.DIC 1235968 9-15-99 NL T Italian
EFLJPN.DIC  479232 4-06-00 L ? Japanese
EFLKOR.DIC  609792 4-06-00 L ? Korean
US.MED    223744 5-06-98 L ? Medical American
NORBOK.DIC  1569792 9-15-99 NL T Norwegian (Bokmal)
NORNYN.DIC  1049088 9-15-99 NL  Norwegian (Nynorsk)
POLSKA.DIC  1509376 9-15-99 NL ? Polish (DBCS?)
PORTUGAL.DIC 1319424 9-15-99 NL T Portuguese National
BRAZIL.DIC  1498112 9-15-99 N  Portuguese (Brazilian)
RUSSIAN.DIC 3323904 9-15-99 NL ? Russian (DBCS?)
ESPANA.DIC  955392 9-15-99 NL T Spanish
SVENSK.DIC  1243648 9-15-99 NL T Swedish
TURKIYE.DIC  582144 9-15-99 NL ? Turkish

-----------------------------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
-----------------------------